WHEN AUGUST COMES, DECEMBER CAN'T BE VERY FAR BEHIND

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A friend called me up on the phone just to say.... "Len, pasko na! Asan na pamasko ko!?" (Christmas is hear! Where's my gift!? ) ... and gave out a huge hearty laugh almost blowing out my eardrums! That's a Pinoy for you! The country is the only country (I think) which runs the longest Christmas celebration on the planet. In fact, check out the malls and you will find (this early) Christmas items and trimmings on sale lining their shelves. Sometimes a Christmas song or two rolls out on their sound system filling up the halls non-stop till your ears drop.
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Since I was a kid I hear of ... Winter Wonderland. I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, Here Comes Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Let It Snow ..... Christmas songs from the land of Uncle Sam and winter snow. My favorite? - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
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I remember Tagalog Christmas songs, too..... Pasko Na Naman, Pasko Ay Sumapit, Sa Paskong Darating, Pasko Na Sinta Ko, Mano Po Ninong, Paskong Anong Saya. My favorite? - Pasko Na Naman.
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Truthfully, Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Have you noticed that at this time of the year people smile so much more and often --- that people become so much kinder and giving --- that even strangers out on the streets have that happy glint in their eyes --- that streets, buildings, houses are all brightly lighted up with Christmas lights (whether they can afford it or not) --- !!! That everyone and everything is spelled --- g-e-n-e-r-o-s-i-t-y! That's the best part of the season that I love. Everybody is... feels... becomes... so GIVING. So generous!
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Now I won't take any argument about the kind or of reasons for the giving because I don't care. Simply put, I'm just a big sucker for a person who gives and gives...... even if it hurts their pockets, egos, hearts, minds, and time. And I like it best when someone is kind to others by saying the right things not because he or she is smart but because the other person needs to hear kindness and love. It's beautiful to see kindness and generosity in others... and lovely to strive to grow in generosity in our own.
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The idea that you are able to give of your time.. of yourself -- that already is a big deal to me. Though I have been chided plenty of times that I will be disappointed just as much. I know and I have been hurt dozens of times then and now because of generosity under false pretenses. Meaning that the giver cares more about self than about others. It's still the I, ME, MY, and MINE of things that eases quietly or loudly into life and living.. But of course I know that.... we know that, don't we?
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Still that won't change the message of the season, that is... giving and being happy about it.
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The Christmas spirit can be very contagious. Indeed! It's that spirit lovely to see all year round. Maybe we can; it's up to us.
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But of course we all know the main REASON for the season. I'll reserve that for another post.
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Enjoy these times of the maybe slow (oh yes, some people can still be so impatient about this) but the sure unfolding of..... Christmas! God bless you with lovely days and precious memories.

KINDNESS IN ANOTHER'S TROUBLE - COURAGE IN YOUR OWN

 

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Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own.

-----Gordon Adam Lindsay

Have you come across this poem before? It's beautiful and true, isn't it?
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Froth and bubble.... if you think about it, life is indeed most of the time froth and bubble. Temporary, fleeting, sometimes meaningless. Those things which we do for ourselves really don't matter where it should matter most. Superficial ---- We spend so much time "caring too much about how we look. about how other people look. about what we say and do and what other people say and do". And we think that's important because it is all about us. Our dreams, ambitions, experiences, opinions, achievements or failures ... our lives. Not that those things in itself are bad; those have its uses, too. But honestly we can take that only to a certain extent. Beyond a certain point it would matter no more.
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And that certain point is when everything about us is satisfied or sated. Thereafter things only get repeated over and over, again and again and in effect lose its relevance at all. Pointless... meaningless... 'been there-done that' is what some would say. Jaded robotic existence.
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But have you noticed how your soul comes alive when your focus shifts to another person? Particularly when you share of your self generously... selflessly? Feel the vibrant energy oozing out from you? A spark is lighted (you don't even know how it got there) and you get infused with its brilliant light. You become alive!
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The same magic happens to you when you face your struggles and challenges with new-found strength... strength you thought no longer existed. Bravery in your own is a magnificent thing. You begin to see life anew with renewed hope, courage, and faith.
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Kindness and courage .... both give meaning to life --- and life to meaning.
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Blessings to you all!

GENEROSITY WITHOUT A SELFIE

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Lovely post I saw this morning and gladly sharing on my page. Good words to live by.....  "Magis is generosity without a selfie."       - Fr. Arnel Aquino, SJ

I pray this takes root in the hearts of many. As it thrives in the hearts of volunteers and workers and foreign friends near and far for/in the Visayas. Thank you, Fr. Arnel Aquino, SJ for this blessed piece...  and to Mark Lopez for sharing.
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To quote:

Two Saturdays ago at the Richie Fernando Covered Courts, I was in a human chain with some young people whose faces were awfully familiar. We were unloading a truck of rice and we were laughing at how we struggled with the weight of those darn sacks. I couldn’t quite put names to their familiar faces, let alone remember where I had met them. 

When we had fully unloaded the truck, Brother Mark walked up to me and said: “Fr. Arnel, I saw you in the chain with our Payatas boys.” 

Well, there was my answer. I met these kids in Payatas when I said mass there in October. The picture now was complete…and very moving: boys living in a landfill and now happily uplifting the hungry and homeless of Yolanda: the “widow’s last coin” happening before my very eyes. It was magis in its truest sense of not counting the cost but still giving, of not heeding the wounds but still fighting, of not seeking any rest and reward, but still toiling and laboring…and even having fun while doing it. In other words—offering from what little you have, enriching others from your own poverty, giving from your dearth.

For many years, I’ve noticed how our students and alumni understand magis in quite a different sense (and I blame us, Jesuits, first of all for having let it go unchecked, surely we dropped the ball on this one.) They describe magis like this: soar higher, fly faster, achieve more, be smarter and hipper, not just 3-peat, go 4-peat, no, go 5-peat; more distinction, more fame, more glory to God, yes, but glory to us doesn’t hurt along the way!

Go back to Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and we realize that magis in the quintessential sense means—are you ready?—more humility, more simplicity, more self-outpouring, more poverty of spirit, and should God desire it, more material poverty, even. See, the Prayer for Generosity is the incarnation of the spirit of magis. Run the lines in your mind (give and not to count the cost, fight and not to heed the wounds, etc.) and you’ll realize that true magis is giving to others from our own dearth, building others from own homelessness, healing others in spite our woundedness. In other words, think of the Prayer for Generosity when you think of the true spirit of magis. For magis is generosity without a selfie.

See the difference, sisters and brothers? Magis is all about God, therefore, it is all about our neighbor, therefore, it is not all about us. This is the magis behind the widow’s last coin, behind the Payatas boys’ willing and joyful hands.  Magis is to do both the great and the small for God, but without the selfie…because then it becomes all about us, really.

Incidentally, I was thinking, if I were to change a line in our alma mater song, I would probably replace the one that says, “Win or lose, it’s the school we choose.” I wonder if that line does not in fact belie the spirit of “down from the hill, down to the world go I.” I have a creepy feeling that the line is a selfie. And I’m sure you’ve noticed, dear sisters and brothers, that this thing we call “selfie”, it comes in a thousand different forms. But in all of those forms, the thing that comes between our eyes and the world that we should be looking at — is us looking at ourselves.

Dear Father Ignatius, help us remember the generous widow in our Lord’s story whenever we think of your magis. Amen.

*delivered at the ADMU College Chapel noontime mass, Nov 25, 2013

Unquote.

(I stumbled upon these beautiful posters (thanks to the internet) to further essay such beautiful thoughts.)